AT&T, the largest US telecommunications group, unveiled a set of quarterly results that could help allay concerns about the impact of the economic slowdown on the industry.

Strong revenue growth and expanded margins – particularly in its mobile phone network operations which have been boosted by sales of the iPhone – helped AT&T report its 12th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in earnings per share.

“We delivered an excellent first quarter and a solid start to the year,” said Randall Stephenson, chief executive.

“Revenue growth continues to ramp, we have good momentum across key growth areas, major cost initiatives are on track and our operational results reinforce the confidence we have in our outlook.”

Profits rose 21 per cent from $2.8bn to $3.5bn, boosted by a 6.1 per cent increase in revenues to $30.7bn.

Operating income margins expanded to 19.5 per cent, up from 16.1 per cent. Earnings per share increased from $0.45 to $0.57.

AT&T said operating cost savings following its $86bn acquisition of BellSouth were $3.9bn in 2007, and that it expected such savings to grow by more than $2bn in 2008.

AT&T said last week that it would cut its workforce by 1.5 per cent, or about 4,600 jobs, on top of a three-year plan to cut 10,000 jobs announced late last year.

Within its operations, the mobile phone network continued to be the star performer.

Total wireless revenues increased 18.3 per cent to $11.8bn compared with a year earlier, fuelled by strong subscriber gains and continued improvement in ARPU (average monthly revenues per subscriber). AT&T ended the quarter with 71.4m subscribers.

Average revenues per subscriber grew 2 per cent to $50.18 in the first quarter, while wireless data revenues grew by 57.3 per cent to $2.3bn “reflecting robust increases in internet access, e-mail, messaging, data access and media bundles.”

AT&T, which is the exclusive US carrier for Apple iPhone, said data now represented 21.5 per cent of total wireless service revenues, up from 16 per cent a year ago.

AT&T’s wireless operating income margin was 25 per cent, up from 15.2 per cent a year earlier.

The group’s fixed-line business benefited from a 13.2 per cent increase in broadband revenues to $1.4bn. AT&T ended the quarter with 14.6m consumer and business high-speed internet connections, up 1.8m, or 13.9 per cent, over the year.

AT&T is relying on growth in wireless and IPTV subscribers to offset the traditional access line losses, which have been accelerating in recent quarters.

In the quarter, AT&T said the number of resident access lines fell by 7.7 per cent.

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